Five demands for a better world
John Keeley
At the TUC conference the General Secretary, Frances O’Grady, asked political parties to make five pledges to voters:
- to restore the goal of full employment,
- build one million new council and affordable homes,
- guarantee fair pay,
- strengthen the welfare state and
- ensure fair rights at work
Left Unity should think about five demands for a better world that more fully address the gravity of this moment in history, faced as we are with the descent into barbarism as a result of the economic & ecological crisis.
Here’s my suggestions:
- to bring about participatory democracy, necessary for
- the collective control of the economy,
- where empowering & mundane tasks can be shared,
- humanity can implement ecological sustainability and
- imperialism & war can be consigned to history
This is unashamedly utopian, as we need an empowering vision alongside the transitory demands of our daily struggle.
We have the power to change the world.
5 comments
5 responses to “Five demands for a better world”
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I think Frances O’Grady’s five pledges will resonate well with millions in Britain. Labour won’t take them forward significantly, so if any party is to advance them, it must be Left Unity (or whatever name we choose).
Sound like a pale, woolly version of Green Party policies to me. Surely, LU wants to be different and specific?
Frances O’G’s are all good as far as they go, and would surely amount to a serious challenge to British capitalism as it stands. But you’re absolutely right that the ecological omission is a dreadful one. Jobs and a million council homes won’t do us much good if we’re flooded out and beset by food shortage….
I’m not sure some people get the urgency of what million’s here in the U.K are facing: today a leaked memo to the Guardian reveals that Duncan Smith is planning to make life even harder and more miserable for sick and disabled people, forcing them to take even more steps to look for work or lose all benefits. They can do this because the Welfare Reform Act 2012(the new Poor Law) removed all constraints on the Govt and the DWP and of course was hardly opposed by the left. This week it was announced two more people had killed themselves because of losing their benefits, one man hanging himself, when is the Left going to get real and stop thinking in abstractions, pet hobbies,etc?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/30/iain-duncan-smith-sick-disabled-benefits#start-of-comments
The general & the specific relate.
Without good theory, & that includes vision, we cannot have good practice.
So if you don’t understand that capitalism is the problem & socialism the solution you end up supporting charity work & believing capitalism can be made fairer.
Five demands, not necessarily mine or Frances, can capture the mood.
More specific transitory demands can be made, such as http://leftunity.org/building-an-economy-for-the-people/
Along with concrete action on the streets, like Manchester yesterday, & in local areas, e.g. campaigning against the bedroom tax.
Theory & practice go together.